Where Do I Start This Morning?

I don’t know which assignment to start with this morning (I
receive assignments that are due daily, and then I have others that trickle in
with end-of-the-day deadlines.). So, I’m going to begin the day by warming up
my writing muscles here in my blog. I haven’t written “for the sake of writing”
in ages.

Typically, the pieces I write have a purpose—which, they all
should. I know. What I mean by that is I intend them to be an article for my
publication, an announcement, or another kind of information post.

Today? I just want to write.

Do you ever have days like that?

I do, however, have something on my mind. I want to write
about the importance of proofreading for my publication. I have a reason, too.

Early yesterday morning I received an email from a startup
magazine asking if I would like to submit. The email, itself, looked okay—aside
from the double-spacing after each period. That still annoys me. When I clicked
on the link leading to the submission guidelines . . .

Oh my word, it was a nightmare — so many editorial errors.

So, What Did I Do?

I edited everything and sent it back to them. How many other
prospective writers received this email? What also struck me is the submission
guidelines stated the editor would notice errors and, as a result, rejections
would occur. (???)

The first error right out of the gate was “Submissions” was
spelled, “Sumbmissions.”

I had to turn to Google.

I thought, “I’m old. I don’t know—there are a lot of
weird words floating around. Maybe—I don’t know, this might be another one? Could
this be another one of those words that people are throwing extra letters into
for a specific reason?”

I see “x’s” utilized in words to show gender inclusivity.
[You can read an excellent article about it here.]
So, I thought MAYBE the letter “m” was being used for the same reason. No. It’s
not. I was giving this startup way too much credit. It’s spelled wrong—twice—in
their headers.

Then, there were cases of . . .

Missing commas

Misused commas

Dangling modifiers

Many (MANY) misspellings

Split infinitives

Punctuations errors

Because I’m a pain-in-the-butt, I also had to go through and
change all of the double-spacing.

Wrapping up

Okay, so maybe I don’t need to write about the importance of
proofreading anymore. I think I covered it pretty well in this stream-of-conscious
story. Writing warm-ups have an excellent way of recounting previous situations
while simultaneously preparing you for the day ahead. In this one, I was able
to also dig into why proofreading is critical (especially if you’re presenting
information in a mass email).